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Arousal-related adjustments of perceptual biases optimize perception in dynamic environments
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Abstract
Prior expectations can be used to improve perceptual judgments about ambiguous stimuli. However, little is known about if and how these improvements are maintained in dynamic environments in which the quality of appropriate priors changes from one stimulus to the next. Using a sound-localization task, we show that changes in stimulus predictability lead to arousal-mediated adjustments in the magnitude of prior-driven biases that optimize perceptual judgments about each stimulus. These adjustments depend on task-dependent changes in the relevance and reliability of prior expectations, which subjects update using both normative and idiosyncratic principles. The resulting variations in biases across task conditions and individuals are reflected in modulations of pupil diameter, such that larger stimulus-evoked pupil responses correspond to smaller biases. These results suggest a critical role for the arousal system in adjusting the strength of perceptual biases with respect to inferred environmental dynamics to optimize perceptual judgements.
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“By employing Pontryagin's minimum principle on the probability density function space [1-9], the solution that satisfies the optimality condition δ ˜ J/δ ˜ u = 0 is given by”
From Theoretical Analysis of Resource-Induced Phase Transitions in Estimation Strategies (2026) · cites this paper as [8]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Krishnamurthy, K., Nassar, M. R., Sarode, S., & Gold, J. I.
- Affiliations
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Brown University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Gold, Joshua I.
- Venue
- Nature Human Behaviour
- Published
- 2017-05-08
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 6
- ISSN
- 2397-3374 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5638136
- OpenAlex
- W2611597219
- Cited by
- 117
- References
- 65
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 3
- FWCI
- 5.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature Human Behaviour (publishedVersion)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1533623)
- National Institutes of Health (NSF 1533623)
- National Institute of Mental Health (F32MH102009)
- National Eye Institute (R01EY015260)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Keywords
- arousal, perceptual bias, prior expectations, Bayesian inference, stimulus predictability, dynamic environments, sound localization, pupil size, pupil response, perceptual optimization, environmental dynamics
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